Little Secrets
by LGBTFTW
Summary: Jayme is Lorelai's 16 year old daughter, following in Rory's footsteps. Until she meets Alex, the new girl at Chilton. Alex's past will creep up and force Jayme to admit something she isn't ready to just yet. Season 5, AU
1. These Salty Wounds

**Author's Note: **I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! And with new tricks up my sleeve :) Sorry for abandoning, but I really hope you'll think this story was worth the wait.

So, here's the thing. If you read my bio, you'll know that I enjoy taking stories and making characters to fit into whatever realm I'm working with. This story, you'll see, is a result of one of those days. One of those days were I sat back and wondered _what if this happened...?_

But, because I'm awesome like that, I'm not going to explain my entire train of thought. Instead, I'm going to give you the facts you need and you can pick up the rest as you read.

So, here's what you need to know: Jayme (pronounced like Jamie) Victoire Gilmore was born to Lorelai and a different man - meaning not Christopher, Luke, Max, Alex or anyone else - when Rory was four years old. Currently, Jayme is a sophomore in high school, while Rory is a sophomore in college. With that being said, this is set around season five, but this story doesn't focus so much on what was happening on camera.

That's pretty much all you need to know. The rest shall explain itself.

Hopefully you all will read and review because I love to hear from the people that enjoy :)

-LGBTFTW

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Plaid skirt - pulled up halfway between waist and chest, to be pulled down for dress code at a moment's notice? Check.

Saddle shoes and black knee-high socks? Check.

My weight in notebooks, binders, supplies and clothes to change into after school? Check.

I was ready to kick sophomore year's ass.

Unlike my sister, I started Chilton as a freshman. So, not only did I know the school extremely well before starting the first year that mattered, I didn't have to play catch up like she did. I knew Chilton and Chilton knew me. To the students, I was the ace of the volleyball team and the one everyone copied homework off of. To the teachers, I was Rory Gilmore's younger sister - brilliant, just in different ways.

As I approached the locker number I was given, there was a girl having a hard time with the one next to me. Like every other girl in this school - including myself - her skirt was pulled up far past her waist to not look quite as old-fashioned as the headmaster would have us look. But, studying her, she looked almost… Uncomfortable in what she was wearing. She pulled at her skirt a little while trying to get her combination right and her short hair did not match her uniform. Approaching her, I took my backpack and dropped it to the floor.

"Need some help?" I asked as my bag fell and she looked up at me, as if I scared her.

"Uhh… Yeah, if you want. It doesn't really seem to like me." She moved away from the locker, handed me the paper with her combination and watched in awe as I pulled the door open with ease. "How did you do that? I stood there for at least ten minutes trying to do exactly what you did in like ten _seconds._"

I got of the ground, dusted my knees off a little and shrugged, "I don't know, maybe I'm just magical?"

"Maybe you are." With a small smile, she held out her hand. "I'm Alex. You are…?"

"I'm Jayme." We shook hands politely and she moved to put things from her backpack into her locker - I did the same. "So… What grade are you in?"

"I'm a sophomore."

"Really? Are you new here?"

Poking her head out of her locker, she looked at me and I couldn't tell if she was pissed off at the question or amused. "Yeah, I just transferred in. I used to go to Hartford Public, but…. Uhhh… my parents decided that I would be better off coming to Chilton. I thought so too, until I got into these uniforms."

"Oh yeah, they're pretty much the worst. But the school doesn't really suck as bad as you'd think." With the warning bell, giving us a warning that we had two minutes to be in our first period rooms, lockers were slamming right and left. "What do you have first? I can steer you in the right direction, if you'd like."

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks." A piece of paper was pulled out of the envelope at her feet and she handed it to me. We even had first period together, which I found a little weird.

"We're headed the same way. Follow me?" A nod and we were off; she stayed about a step behind me, trying to take in where she was going. About halfway between our lockers and Honors English, I heard a different kind of a slam into the lockers. When I turned around, Alex was against the lockers and one of the football players had her by her collar, holding her in place.

"You should go back where you came from, you little freak." His voice was hoarse, not too loud, but intimidating nonetheless. I was about six feet away and chills were running their course through my body. "My parents don't pay for me to go to school with faggots." With a final shove into the lockers, the group of football players snickered and walked in the opposite direction. Alex was still against the lockers, stretching her neck and rotating her arms to try and relieve pain from her shoulders.

"Are you okay? I'm so going to kick their…" I trailed but she looked up at me and there was a sort of fire in her eyes. It shut me up instantly.

"You're not going to do anything. Can we just go to first period? I'd rather not be more late than we already are." She took off ahead of me and I ran to catch up. I had no idea what that was about, but I was going to find out, whether Alex liked it or not.


	2. the Walls Came Crumbling

Four periods went by before lunch came around. I hadn't had second or third period with Alex, but I found myself sitting next to her in fourth - like I had in first - and we ventured to the cafeteria after dropping our stuff off at our lockers. For the time I'd been with her after her encounter in the hallway, she had been a lot quieter and more attentive of who was around her. As I looked around, I picked up on why she was being like this: every person she walked passed turned to the person next to them and would whisper.

Just as we were about to sit down, a group of girls from the volleyball team started to whisper, pointing and staring at Alex. "Do you ladies have a problem?" I called across the aisle, pushing my seat back.

"Please, Jayme, just leave it alone. Please?" Alex pleaded, pulling at my arm. I yanked my arm away and leaned over their table.

"Really, I wanna know. Do. You. Have. A. Problem?" With each word, my voice got a little louder. If they didn't know it before, they knew it now: I was pissed off. "Because you and everyone else in this goddamned school seem to have something to say, but lack the balls to say it out loud. So, please. Tell me. What kind of problem do you have with her?" The rest of the girls looked down and pushed their lunches around with forks, while one girl, three seats down and on my right, stood up.

"She's not _normal_, Jayme. We can't fathom why you don't see that. She's the biggest dyke that's ever come to Chilton." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and put a hand on her hips. "Look, I'm fine with gay people, okay? I really am. But hell will freeze over before I'll let… one of _them_ look at me in the locker room. Or look up my skirt when I bend over to pick something up. Look at her, Jayme, her hair's cut short, she has like three piercings per ear and the only reason she's not wearing skinny jeans and a flannel is because we have a proper dress code. She's not normal and she should go back to _public school, _where she belongs." Running her hands over the back of her skirt to flatten it before she sat down, the bitch pulled her seat closer to the table and waved her hand at me, as if that was all it took to get me off of her case.

After giving the girls a fine military salute, I turned around to return to the table I'd been sitting at with Alex, only to find her halfway out of the cafeteria. I grabbed my backpack haphazardly and ran out of the cafeteria, trying to catch her. "Alex, wait up!" My call was desperate, but so was I. Although known for its world-class education, this school had also been known to chew people up and spit them out in the same breath.

"Alex!" I called as she was about to descend down one of the many spiral staircases this school had to offer.

"What do you _want_, Jayme? Wasn't that whole thing back there enough for you? I'm not a charity case, you don't have to protect me from all the big, bad bitches this school has to offer." Alex turned to look at me, unmoving from the stairs. With each word, I took a small step closer until I was right in her face. "Look, the environment might change. The name of the school might change. The faces that look at me like they've never seen a dyke before may change, but the facts remain the same. I am a lesbian. And in this conservative town, that's not okay. The rich snobs that fill this school do not think that's okay. And that's fine. I've learned to live with it. But I don't need to be someone's charity case." With that, she turned to continue descending down the stairs.

"Wait," my voice cracked and I took a few slow steps to where she waited for me to catch up. "I never meant to make you a charity case. That's wasn't what that was back there. That wasn't me fighting for you because I felt bad for you or because I wanted to make myself look better."

"Are you sure? Because that's pretty much what it looked like to me, and I'm sure it looked the same way to everyone else that stared at me while you came to my rescue." She was pissed, and I understood why. Kind of. "Look, I'm a big girl, Jayme. And this isn't the first time I've gotten picked on because I don't _fit in_. I've never been one to fit in and, as far as I'm concerned, I never will be."

"That's fine.." She took a deep breath and continued, so I stood, slouched over the railing.

"Do you think I just up and decided to leave the people that I'd known since I was five and transfer into the land of the rich and the snobby?"

"I don't know, did you?"

"No, I didn't. I was forced to come here. Chilton offers the kind of structured environment that my parents think will help… Like, change me, or something. They don't like that I'm gay. I bring home a girl and they're not particularly thrilled to meet her. My mother cried when I cut all of my hair off." With a deep breath, she looked up and finally made eye contact with me.

"They don't like that I'm gay. They've cut me off from all of my friends, they made me break up with my girlfriend… They've taken everything from me. That's why I'm here. I'm not here for the amazing education, or the excellent socialization or the uniform that has me in a skirt I'm _really _not comfortable in. I'm here because they figure being in a place like this," Alex looked up to the vaulted ceiling and had her arms gestured outward, "will help, I don't know… Fix me or something. Or that I'll meet a high-society guy, he'll sweep me off my feet and suddenly I'll be a million times more feminine."

Before I could respond, people started to come out of the cafeteria and wander to their fifth period classes, something that I wasn't sure I could handle. So I grabbed her hand and I pulled her down the stairs and through the grand foyer until we got to the wrought iron gates. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to grab coffee. Isn't that what civilized people do when they need to talk about something pressing?" Alex looked at me like I was strung out, but that really didn't matter. "Look, not only do I need coffee more than I need oxygen, but we need to be…" I pointed to the huge, scary building that was Chilton and shook my head. "We need to be somewhere that's not inside that teeny-tiny school when we have this conversation."

"It's my first day and you're already encouraging me to ditch?" She asked with a small smile. "Aren't you just a great tour guide?"

"Well, I do what I can. And it's the first day, we don't really do much of anything." I pulled Alex just a little further before we were away from Chilton, mainly so I could breathe a little easier. Like my sister, I was never one to ditch. But the need was here and it was about to explode. And that led me to where I was, seated at Starbucks and waiting for my macchiato, shaking.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked as she sat down with the Naked juice she'd bought from the refrigerator next to the registers.

"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I took a sip of my macchiato and closed my eyes to let the caffeine wash over me. When I opened my eyes, Alex was looking anywhere but at me. I couldn't expect much else, but still. "Look, about what you said back there…"

"You really don't need to pity me, you know. I wasn't saying all of that to make you feel bad or whatever. They're just the facts."

"I wasn't going to pity you. But still… Your parents don't like that you're gay?"

"Nope. Not at all. Not even a little bit. They think it's weird and unnatural… That people aren't supposed to like the same sex." Alex shrugged a little and took another drink of the juice she'd bought. "I don't really care if they think it's natural or not. I didn't ask to be this way. I didn't ask to have it be a million times harder to find someone to be with, I didn't ask to feel more masculine than feminine. I didn't ask to be gay, it just… Happened. I don't mind that it happened; in fact, I love that it did. I just don't want to be blamed when I had no hand in it."

"I could understand that." I nodded and tried to choke back the big lump in my throat. "Look, I don't want you to think that I did what I did because I felt sorry for you or because I thought you needed it. I've only known you since this morning, but I'm pretty sure you could fend for yourself, if you felt the need."

"I could've, you're right."

"What happened at school… It was a little more personal than you might think." With a big gulp of my macchiato, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "It was personal because…. Because I'm gay, too."

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**Author's Note: **And that's all she wrote, folks! (Quite literally, actually...) Thanks for reading :) Please take a moment or two to leave a handy little review. Tell me what you'd like to see, what you don't like... Anything, really. Feedback helps me a ton!


	3. No One Needs to Know

**Author's Note: **So, up until now, I haven't given a disclaimer, so let me do that now. Anything that was on Gilmore Girls (Locations and Characters) are not my property. Everything belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino, God-like woman that she is. The only things I claim for my own are Jayme, Alex and any other characters I invent.

This chapter's a long one, so stick with me, folks.

And, as always, please take a few seconds and leave me a review. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I'm writing.

* * *

"_I could understand that." I nodded and tried to choke back the big lump in my throat. "Look, I don't want you to think that I did what I did because I felt sorry for you or because I thought you needed it. I've only known you since this morning, but I'm pretty sure you could fend for yourself, if you felt the need." _

"_I could've, you're right." _

"_What happened at school… It was a little more personal than you might think." With a big gulp of my macchiato, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "It was personal because…. Because I'm gay, too."_

With wide eyes, Alex brought her chair closer to the table and leaned forward. "You're- you're gay?" I nodded and looked down into the small hole in the lid of my coffee cup. "Really?" Another nod and Alex shook her head. "Wow… Cool."

"Cool?" I tilt my head slightly to the side. It felt good to finally tell someone what I'd been holding in since I was twelve, but somehow _Cool_ was not the reaction I was expecting.

"I don't know what else you want me to say, Jayme." Alex chuckled a little and put her folded hands onto the table. "Generally, when you tell a lesbian that you're gay, that's pretty much all you get." I gave a small nod and finished off my macchiato, tossing it between my two hands. "So, what has your family said?"

"My family?"

"Well, yeah. Your family." Blank stares and awkward silence. "You have told your family, right?"

"Uh, no. Not really."

"Not really? Who knows?"

I look down at the table and realize that I've been nervously tapping my fingers along the edge closest to my chest. Chances are, she can probably tell that I'm really nervous, at this point. "Well…. You. The list kind of ends there." I took a deep breath and looked into her bright Hazel eyes. "Look, my mom and my sister… Well, they _love _men. And they always have. I just… It's hard to tell your mom that you're different."

"I know the feeling. I remember when I came out, it was terrible. It still is terrible. But, at least they know and at least I'm not hiding anything. They're not happy about it, but they have the whole truth. Which is enough for me." She downed the last of her Naked juice and grabbed my coffee cup to throw them both away, then returned and sat backwards in her chair.

"So, how _did _you come out to your parents?" I asked and my eyes immediately went wide. "I'm sorry, that was totally…."

"No, it's fine." She took a deep breath. "You told me something pretty huge about you, something that you hadn't told anyone before. I don't mind doing the same."

_

* * *

Sitting down in the living room after one of their family's Sunday night dinners, Alex tucked a loose piece of long, brown hair behind her ear and cleared her throat. "Mom, Dad, can I talk to you about something?" _

"_Well, of course, Alexis. We're your parents, we expect that you can talk to us concerning anything you feel you need to talk to us about." Mrs. Havelind gave a small smile and pat her left hand on her husband's lap. "Isn't that right, Robert/"_

"_What? Oh, of course. Anything you need to talk to us about, champ." _

"_Thanks." She rubbed her hands together and bent forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "There's not really an easy way to start this conversation but… I like girls." _

_Almost in-sync with each other, Alex's parents tilted their head to the right. "I don't understand what you're getting at, dear. You like girls? I like girls, too. I mean, I am one after all, so…"_

"_No, Mom, I don't think you get it: I. Like. Girls." At this point, Alex had risen to her feet and was starting to pace. "As in, I feel sexual attraction toward women. As in, I lack a sexual attraction to men, like you have, Mom. It's been like this since… Since before I can remember. I was four, sitting in the sandbox with the other girls and I would listen to them talk about how cute Casey Lara was and I couldn't agree with them. He wasn't cute. Now, Emmely Avila… Man, she was cute. She was really cute. But I never could say…"_

"_What do you mean, you like girls? We're a Catholic family, Alexis Grace. We are a Catholic family and homosexuality is __**wrong**__." Her dad finally stood up and spoke. "God intended for man to mate with woman and that they would have a long, prosperous life as partners. And that they would create a family of their offspring. You can't do that when two women are together! It doesn't work like that."_

"_Catholic? Christ, Dad, you have got to be joking. We go to Mass __**maybe **__at Christmas and Easter and you pulled me out of CCD because it was too strenuous to take me twice a week. We are not a Catholic family. You and Mom might be Catholic, and that's your prerogative, but I am not a Catholic. That isn't what I believe in and I refuse to follow an institution that completely shuns people like me out!" _

"_This is a phase, sweethart. It's a phase. Sexual experimentation is natural in teenagers, it really is. But this kind of experimentation could really damage your reputation and can get you mixed up with some pretty bad people." Her mom interjected. "Does this has something to do with those friends of yours? Are they influencing you like this?"_

"_Influencing me? Really, Mom? Those are my friends. And they stand by me. Something that I'm not sure you and Dad know how to do. This is not a phase. I promise, I did not wake up one day and decide that I was going to make my life a thousand times harder. I did not decide that I was going to make it a thousand times harder to find someone to settle down with. What makes you think that this was a choice?" Despite how hard she tried, Alex could not sit still. She was pacing, shaking and fidgeting - all at once. _

"_Alexis, that's what homosexuality is. It's a choice. Women were designed, by God, to feel a sexual attraction to men. And when a woman decides that she doesn't like men and, instead, likes women, she's making a choice." Her dad took his tumbler and went to the drink cart to pour himself another drink; it had to be number five. Maybe it was number six. "The point being, Alexis, that it's not right. And maybe it's time you stopped spending so much time with those friends of yours. This deviancy had to come from somewhere and, if it's coming from them, it needs to stop." _

"_What? Are you-"_

"_I think that's exactly what needs to happen. I don't want you to spend anymore time with those friends of yours outside of school." Mrs. Havelind nodded and took a deep breath. "Spending time with those… Hoodlums from that school is what is taking you off track."

* * *

_

"_Mom! Dad! You can't be.."_

"_Yes, Alexis. We can. And we are." Her dad put his hand up, signaling that her arguments were over. In defeat, she sat back down on the love seat and hung her head. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do before work tomorrow and, as it is, I'm already twenty minutes late starting it." Without so much as another word, Mr. Havelind walked out of the living room and into his office; once the door was closed, the lock was turned. He was done for the night. While Alexis sat on the love seat, her mom moved around her, cleaning up from the night's dinner. _

"Wow, that sounds… That sounds really intense." I nodded and tried to make eye contact with her. She had been staring out the window for the duration of the story and hadn't stopped. "And it didn't get better?"

"Nope, not then and it definitely hasn't gotten better since." Finally, she turned and looked at me. "That isn't to say that your family won't be better. Your family could be loads better. You just… You have to tell them to find out. That's all."

"But what if it's a really bad reaction?"

"Is your family religious?

I had to hold back a laugh, an appropriate move when I saw no trace of a smile on her features. "No, we're not. At all. My mom did get pregnant at sixteen, after all."

"With you?"

"With my sister." I corrected with a nod. Albeit, I was only four years later, but still. Rory was first.

She, too, gave a nod. "If your mom's not religious, then I don't see a problem. Generally the homophobia comes from religion." Apparently, my face didn't look too reassured. "The only way you're going to find out how your mom will react is to tell her. And without the religious card, I'm sure she'll be fine. And, besides, I don't really sense anyone being too severely mad at you."

I shrugged and looked out the window. As if someone had opened the door to an ant farm, the streets of Hartford were full of Chilton uniforms. "Shit, what time is it?"

Alex pulled up the sleeve of her Chilton blazer and took a glance at her watch. "3:05, why?"

"My bus comes in fifteen minutes and I need to change." Feeling for my backpack underneath the small table, I grabbed its top handle and hoisted it up onto my lap. Out of it, I pulled a pair of acid-washed skinny jeans, a white v-neck shirt and a grey cable knit cardigan to change into, rushing to the bathroom before any other girl could get there. I pulled the clothes on as fast as I could and made it back to the table in under three minutes.

"What's with the rush?" Alex asked as she watched me shove my Chilton uniform into my backpack. Once the uniform was in, I pulled a bottle of hair product out and began scrunching my curls to tame them once again. As much as I loved it sometimes, the fact that I inherited my mother's hair was a real pain sometimes.

"My mom just opened her own inn in the town we live in, Stars Hollow. For a while, she worked at the one that my grandmother owned, but then they had a fire and so she opened her own. And, while they're getting off the ground, I'm working there after school. I worked there all summer and practically put Michel, the manager, out of work. And so I agreed to work there and, in exchange, my mom's going to buy me a car when I get my license. Something that my sister didn't get, so I feel kind of special." Alex's eyebrows were raised and she just nodded. If anyone knew how to talk fast like my mother, it was me. With the suede ankle boots I had thrown in my backpack at the last minute on, I zipped my backpack up and stood. I tapped a button on the side of my cell phone and found that I had ten more minutes to get to my stop, right outside of Chilton, and be on a bus. "Walk me out?"

With a nod, Alex grabbed her backpack and hoisted it over her shoulder, following me out. Before I knew it, we were in front of the stop and I threw my bag down on the ground. "So, interesting day?" I asked with a bit of a laugh.

"Yeah, you could say so. Definitely a first day I wouldn't forget." Right as she smiled at me, the bus pulled up.

"That would be my ride. But I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I don't see how you wouldn't." Another smile, bigger this time, and I was on the bus. For an hour, I kept thinking about the events the day had taken, including but not limited to the fact that, for the first time in high school, I ditched class.

When I got off the bus in Stars Hollow, I went immediately to Luke's, ordered a coffee, paid for it and was on my way to the inn. Walking up to the beginning of the property, one of the baggage boys was standing by with the golf cart and offered to drive me up - this I was definitely grateful for because I didn't really want to walk all the way up the gravel path in the heels I had on.

"Thanks, Jeremy," I called as I got off the cart, lugging the backpack with me to the Jeep, which was unlocked, and threw it in the back seat. There was no reason to have that inside, and it'd be safer in the car that I had just locked anyways.

As I walked in the door, my mom was at the counter, on the phone. Just as she spotted me, she said her goodbyes and stared me down with the icy blue eyes I had not been so lucky as to receive. "Are you sick?"

"Uhh… No?"

"Did you eat something bad at lunch that kept you out of class?" More staring. Apparently, the headmaster had called my mother and ratted me out.

"No."

"Did you get in some crazy cat fight and have your eyes clawed out or a black eye that you've magically concealed with makeup?" I shook my head in the negative. "Then why the _hell _were you not in your fifth through seventh period classes?" At this point, I'd learned to keep my mouth shut. "So now you're going to pull a Mr. Frosty on me? How lovely of you."

A few more minutes went by before she spoke again. "Seriously, James, what happened? If you have a good reason, you know I'll be on your side. I'm always on your side."

I gave a simple shrug, "It was personal, that's all." By the look on my mom's face, she was either pissed or really hurt. Either way, her lips were pursed and she continued to file through the mountains of bills that needed paying.

"Look, I know this is going to get ugly, but it's not going to get ugly here. You can head home. I'll deal with you later." When she didn't look up from what she was doing, I knew she was serious, so I logged out of the computer and walked, trying not to storm, out the front door of the inn and headed home. This evening was definitely going to be a long one.


	4. It's No Way to Be

**Author's Note: **As always, this is not mine, it belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino. But she left her toys out, so I decided to play with them :)

Please Read and Review!

-LGBTFTW

* * *

"_Are you sick?"_

"_Uhh… No?"_

"_Did you eat something bad at lunch that kept you out of class?" More staring. Apparently, the headmaster had called my mother and ratted me out. _

"_No."_

"_Did you get in some crazy cat fight and have your eyes clawed out or a black eye that you've magically concealed with makeup?" I shook my head in the negative. "Then why the hell were you not in your fifth through seventh period classes?" At this point, I'd learned to keep my mouth shut. "So now you're going to pull a Mr. Frosty on me? How lovely of you." _

_A few more minutes went by before she spoke again. "Seriously, James, what happened? If you have a good reason, you know I'll be on your side. I'm always on your side." _

_I gave a simple shrug, "It was personal, that's all." By the look on my mom's face, she was either pissed or really hurt. Either way, her lips were pursed and she continued to file through the mountains of bills that needed paying. _

"_Look, I know this is going to get ugly, but it's not going to get ugly here. You can head home. I'll deal with you later." When she didn't look up from what she was doing, I knew she was serious, so I logged out of the computer and walked, trying not to storm, out the front door of the inn and headed home. This evening was definitely going to be a long one. _

When I got home, I threw my stuff down in my room - just down the hall from my mother's. My heels were kicked off in the general direction of my closet, my skinny jeans were pulled off, put on my desk and replaced with a pair of sweats. The cardigan and the v-neck however…. Well, those could stay. I grabbed my hardback copy of _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_, which I had every intention of rereading before the movie came out in November; my sister and I made a tradition out of going and seeing the movies. But the deal was that we had to reread the book before the movie came out so we could heckle.

My mom walked in at about eight. At that point, I'd read more than five chapters of _the Goblet of Fire_, I had ordered pizza with the money clipped to the fridge and I'd taken a shower. When she was still working at the Independence Inn, she was never this late, but the Dragonfly wasn't on its feet yet - she apologized profusely that she wasn't home until at least eight.

With a piece of supreme pizza in hand, she walked into the living room and sat cross-legged on the coffee table in front of me. My hands were running through my product-ridden hands and she could tell I was nervous. I'd bet that the whole town of Stars Hollow could tell I was nervous if they looked hard enough.

"Kiddo, you have to tell me what's up. If you give me a good reason, I'll be on your side. One hundred percent; haven't I always told you that?" I marked my place in my book and put it on the stand to my right.

"Yeah, you have." My voice was small, mirroring how I felt. I never ditched school. Ever. And I can't believe I started today. And even though she'd probably completely understand my ditching, I didn't want it to come out like this. Not now, and not before World War III: Gilmore Edition.

"Babe, tell me what happened. Did you get sick? Was some girl giving you trouble about something?"

"None of the above."

"Then what the hell was it? You're not giving me much to work with." I stayed silent, somewhat accepting my fate. This was going to be a big one, possibly the biggest my mom and I have ever had. With my head bowed, I could feel her eyes burning two holes into the top of my head. "Okay, let's try this again. Did you get sick?"

"No."

"Did you get in a fight?"

"No."

"Did you fall down the stairs? Those stairs can be really vicious to the unsuspecting saddle shoe."

"No."

Each of my answers were short and quiet; definitely not helping my situation. " You know the silent treatment and I don't get along very well. Talk to me."

I sighed and kept my head down. "I skipped class. I'm sorry." The briefest quiet moment passed. I was naïve enough to believe, for a split second, that my mother let the issue go.

"You're sorry? That's it? Reason, please, and it better be good." I looked up to see my mom standing, hands rested on her hips. It was getting worse by the second.

"Can you just ground me? Take away my books and my CD's and the phone and I won't go out this weekend."

"You sound like Rory when she went to New York to go see Jess."

"Well, that's what happens, right? I do something wrong, you ground me, and grounding me means taking things away. So you ground me and I promise I won't skip again."

"Yes, and if this were a sitcom, grounding you would do the trick, but it's not and sending you to your room without dinner won't do it for me. I want a reason. I want to know why you did something you've never done before. Why you did something you would never do-borrowing bodily injury or the sudden appearance of a portal leading to some insane, alternate universe. Which one is it?"

"No injury, no alternate universe. It was nothing like that, okay? Can we please not talk about this?" I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my sweats and stood up, heading for the stairs.

"Freeze, mister." And I did. I froze and ended up turning around to a severely pissed off mother. "Do I look like a Stepford mom to you? I'm not just gonna slap on a fake smile and pretend everything is peachy keen. We need to talk about this. I need to know why you skipped."

"Well, I don't wanna talk about it. I apologized. I said I wouldn't do it again, and I won't."

"Jayme-"

"No! It's none of your business! I'm done talking. I have a book to read." With that, _Harry_ and I went up to my room; I shut the door with a little more force than normal, but not enough to be called a slam.


	5. Painting Rainbows

**Author's Note: **Sorry to leave you all hanging like that, the holidays got in the way of my fantastic roll on updating (Trust me, Kaci gave me a hard enough time for all of you). I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and there should be another one up in a very shirt amount of time.

As always, please Read and Review, tell me what you think about this chapter and if you have any suggestions for future plot lines!

-LGBTFTW

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Disclaimer: The town of Stars Hollow or any of its residents from the actual TV show are not mine, however anything additional was of my own creation. I am simply borrowing from the brilliant mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino. If you wish to use any of my characters, feel free, all I ask is that you let me know.

* * *

That night and the day after were completely silent in our house. I didn't go to the inn after school on Thursday or Friday because my mom had told me that Michel would be fine without me and, Thursday night, she didn't get home until after I was asleep. Friday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch, doing my AP World History homework when I heard the front door open. I was too late to react; whoever was at the door came through the front door and dropped their stuff in the foyer before running into the living room.

"Jay? What are you doing home? Aren't you normally at the inn in the afternoon?" my older sister, Rory, inquired as she sat down next to me. I uncurled myself, layed my history book on the coffee table and took my glasses off.

"Nice to see you too, Rory," I stuck my tongue out and sighed. "Yeah, I usually am, but Mom and I had a bit of a… loud conversation, if you will."

"You and Mom had a fight!"

"No, a fight would require both sides to be involved. Like I said, it was a loud conversation." She looked at me expectantly, and after a few seconds, motioned her hands so that I would continue. "I skipped school." I admitted, sighing and laying my head on the back of the couch.

"You did _what!"_

"I skipped school."

"How is that possible? You've only been in school for like three days." Adjusting herself to get more comfortable on the couch, Rory looked at me with wide eyes.

"I skipped after lunch on the first day." Another gasp and even wider eyes from my sister ensued.

"Wha… How… _Why_ would you skip on the first day?"

"There was a… Situation at lunch that needed to be worked out and so me and this girl left and went to Starbucks." She motioned with her hands, yet again, for me to continue. _Deep breath, you can do it, Jayme._ "Well, see, there's this new girl at Chilton and she's… Well, she's a little more masculine than the people of Chilton are used to."

"More masculine? What do you mean by 'more masculine'?"

"Well, she's like…. She wears her hair really short and, though I have yet to see her outside of Chilton, she probably dresses in clothes that could, at a quick glance, make you think that _she _is actually a _he_. And she has a ton of piercings in each ear, which apparently doesn't help the whole looking-masculine thing." Rory looked even more puzzled and I took a deep breath. This was going to be a long conversation and I didn't know how it was going to go. "Want some coffee? I'm dying for some." She nodded and I went into the kitchen and made a pot - extra strong, even by Gilmore standards. Before I could carry the two mugs out to the living room, Rory turned the corner into the kitchen and ushered me into a chair.

"So what was this situation that needed to be handled?" She asked as she pulled the mug closer to her face and took a gulp.

"Well, all day, people had been talking shit about her and one of the guys from the football team threw her against the lockers, telling her to 'go back where she came from' because his parents 'don't pay for him to go to school with faggots'. So, by lunch, the dirty stares got worse and the whispering was so loud it was practically shouting. And I asked some of the girls from the volleyball team if they had a problem. And she laid it out for me: Alex is a lesbian and the whole school knows it and they're not _okay _with that. And before I could even retaliate, Alex was out the door." Deep breath, gulp of coffee. I can do this. I can do this.

"And then you…?" She looked at me expectantly and motioned for me to continue. Another deep breath and another gulp of coffee - I needed all the help I could get.

"We were on the stairs, just to the left of the cafeteria, when she told me that she didn't want to be a charity case and that she'd be fine taking care of herself, that Chilton wasn't her first experience with the big, bad rich people. Before I knew it, I was dragging her out the front doors, and then the wrought iron gates, of school and down the street to Starbucks because I wanted to continue the conversation and fifth through seventh periods wouldn't allow me to do that.

"So, I ordered a macchiato and she bought one of those stupid Naked juice things that are in the refrigerator under the baked goods. You know, the one that we never pay attention to because it doesn't have coffee in it? And we sat down and she told me about her parents wigging out and playing the Catholic card and basically just going apeshit about the fact that she's a lesbian and - wait, no, that was after I talked…."

"After _you_ talked? About what?" Both of our mugs were empty, so Rory grabbed them both and moved to refill them.

"Well, I apologized for making her think that I was making her a charity case, I told her that I didn't mean for it to be that way and I told her that I did it… I did it becauseI'." My words truly became one word and my head was bowed, hands shaking as they drummed on the side of the table. The only noise I heard from Rory's direction was the sound of two mugs colliding with the wood floor.


	6. AUTHOR'S NOTE

-Quick Author's Note-

So, I know I haven't posted for a while, and that's for two reasons.

1) **My life has been consumed with my junior year in high school.** I go to a school that's project-based. So, basically, I have the regular coursework of any traditional AP class.. and then I have culminating projects all of the time. Basically, every two weeks, I am expected to complete another huge project. But enough of my whining...

2) **I'm completely rewriting this story. **As much as I'm overwhelmed by the amount of awesome reviews I've received, what I've written (and posted) thus far is just not up to my own personal standards and it's not quite where I wanted to go with it. So, I'm going to completely rewrite it. Starting now.

Now being when I finish my history and chemistry homework.

So, again, I'm glad you guys like the story! Just be prepared for a... Little bit of a different direction, if you will.

-LGBTFTW


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